Bitcoin search interest has reportedly dropped to its lowest level in five years, while BTC trades near $81,000. At the same time, Robinhood has reported a 55% year-over-year decline in quarterly cryptocurrency revenue, raising questions about retail interest in the market.
According to Kalshi, Google searches for Bitcoin have fallen to a five-year low. Trader Crypto Kaleo noted that similar drops in search interest occurred around local Bitcoin price bottoms in September 2023 and September 2024.
A previous report from crypto.news showed a worldwide Google Trends score of 20 for October 18–24, compared with peaks near 100 over the previous five years.
However, Google Trends measures relative search interest rather than the actual number of searches or the number of people investing in Bitcoin. Google also warns that low search activity can make results more affected by statistical noise. Therefore, falling search interest alone does not prove that retail investors have abandoned the market.
Robinhood’s third-quarter earnings provide another indication of changing crypto activity. The company reported $120 million in cryptocurrency revenue, down 55% from a year earlier. Its total crypto trading volume fell 38% annually to around $50 billion.
Trading activity on Robinhood’s app dropped 48% year-over-year to $21 billion, while Bitstamp’s volume declined 28% to $29 billion.
However, the quarter-on-quarter figures showed some improvement. Cryptocurrency trading volume increased 23% from the previous quarter to $49.8 billion, while reported crypto revenue rose 20% from $100 million to $120 million. The revenue figure included $26 million attributed to Robinhood Chain, meaning revenue excluding that contribution was $94 million.
Despite the annual decline in crypto revenue, Robinhood reported total quarterly revenue of $1.424 billion, up 12% from a year earlier. Options generated $399 million, equities brought in $121 million, and event contracts contributed $173 million.
Meanwhile, smaller Bitcoin holders have continued sending coins to Binance. According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, deposits from retail-sized wallets reached a six-month high. The 30-day cumulative value of these deposits reportedly increased from around $5.5 billion to $10.75 billion.
By comparison, deposits attributed to large Bitcoin holders fell from approximately $5.9 billion in late August to around $3.8 billion during the period examined.
These figures show transfers into an exchange, but they do not necessarily mean investors are selling their Bitcoin. Exchange deposits can serve different purposes, and the data does not reveal how many people have stopped following or investing in the market.
Other figures also point to changes in activity across Robinhood Chain. Average daily transactions reportedly fell from 10.8 million during September 10–16 to 6.2 million during October 2–8. Daily active addresses averaged around 322,000, down 31% from mid-September. Weekly decentralized spot trading volume declined 21% to $7.45 billion, while perpetual futures volume increased 26% to $7.35 billion in the reported seven-day period.
Research from Galaxy Research also highlights how difficult it is to determine who owns Bitcoin. Its October ownership analysis left approximately 11.1 million BTC, or 55% of the supply, without an identified owner.
Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn suggested that individuals holding Bitcoin in personal wallets could account for a substantial share of this unidentified supply. However, the research did not establish how much belongs to retail investors, unidentified institutions or holders of inaccessible coins.
The remaining 45% included Bitcoin attributed to exchanges, investment funds, governments and early mining groups, based on identifiable blockchain addresses.
Separate figures from Lookonchain showed that the investment products it tracked held 1,284,312 BTC as of October 22. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust accounted for approximately 814,263 BTC.
Overall, declining Google search interest and Robinhood’s annual revenue drop suggest weaker interest in some areas of the crypto market. However, the increase in retail-sized exchange deposits and the quarterly recovery in Robinhood’s trading activity show that investor behavior is not moving in a single direction. The available data does not provide a definitive count of retail Bitcoin holders or prove that individual investors have left the market.